How the Alarm Went Off Too Late in Britain’s Virus Response
Britain had time. Academics, disease specialists and critics say the prime minister wasted it.
Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak leave a news conference addressing the government’s response to the coronavirus outbreak on March 17.
Photographer: Matt Dunham/AFP via Getty Images
On Monday, March 16, a secretive group of Britain’s top scientists, health experts and government officials gathered to discuss the unfolding coronavirus pandemic. They knew they had a problem.
For days, Prime Minister Boris Johnson had brushed aside a crescendo of calls from politicians and academics to close the country’s more than 30,000 schools. He had repeatedly refused, insisting that the scientific advice he was so publicly heeding showed such disruption wasn’t necessary.